A Lethal Beacon for Migrating Birds: Communication towers claim 6.8 million birds annually in the United States

Michael L. Avery The 1,200-foot Omega communications tower in LaMoure, N.D., now operated by the Navy. Once its red lights are turned on at night, birds tend to collide with the tower itself or its cables. On the morning of Sept. 11, 1948, “a good number of dead, dying and exhausted birds” were found at the base of the WBAL radio tower in Baltimore, in what was then viewed as a new and unusual phenomenon. Ever since communication towers began popping up in the United States in the 1940s and 50s, bird bodies have littered the fields below them, especially during migration season. For the first time, researchers have now quantified this threat to birds in the United States and Canada. In a study published online in the journal PLoS One, they estimate that a whopping 6.8 million are claimed annually by tower collisions. “Ninety-five percent of birds killed are going to be neo...